FIELD OF THE INVENTION
The invention relates to an equipment plug connector for a stack of cardshaped data carrier arrangements, which are mutually superimposed congruently or in-register with regard to at least one of the edge surfaces thereof and, respectively, have at least one integrated semiconductor circuit and at least one external connection connected thereto.
An equipment plug connector for a stack of data carrier arrangements of this general type has already been described in U. S. patent application Ser. No. 08/828,697 filed Mar. 31, 1997, a date which is later than the International priority date of Mar. 31, 1995 claimed for the instant application and consequently not prior art thereto, and is assigned to the same corporate assignee as that of the instant patent application. However, U.S. patent application Ser. No. 08/828,697 only discloses stackable cards in which the external connection has a connection surface arranged in one of the edge surfaces of the card. This arrangement enables a plurality of such cards to be placed one on the other without any problems, so that a multiplicity of identical data carrier arrangements can be connected simultaneously to a processing device without any complicated additionally auxiliary devices. For the case wherein the connection surfaces are respectively arranged only on the edge surface or, in other words, do not continue around the edges to the main surfaces of the card, it is proposed that the contact to be made between the connections be affected via a contact bar in a corresponding connecting socket. This socket can be arranged, for example, in an access device, but it can also be operated freely as a connecting socket.